Shooting By Police Sets Off Riot In London

By RAVI SOMAIYA and SARAH MASLIN NIR

Published: August 7, 2011

LONDON -- Clusters of young men hurled bricks and aimed fireworks at riot police officers before a backdrop of burning cars and buildings early Sunday in north London as what began as a protest turned into an all-out riot.

Demonstrators on Saturday evening marched to a police station in the Tottenham area of London to protest the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was killed Thursday in what The Guardian newspaper described as a ''shootout'' with officers from the Trident unit of the Metropolitan Police, which investigates gun crime.

By 10:20 p.m. local time, the protest had turned violent. Two empty police cars were burned and officers were ''subject to bottles and other missiles being thrown at them by the crowd,'' according to a statement released by the police. By midnight, the crowd had grown to several hundred. An entire double-decker bus burned, the black smoke joining the fumes from several burning shops.

Riot and mounted police officers arrived at the scene. As of 2 a.m., groups of young men, ranging in age from 16 to 30, were still facing off with the police, who stood their ground behind plastic shields.

Tottenham is an area of mostly poor minorities; a significant portion of the population is black. ''How many black people have to die around here?'' asked one of the youths, referring to Mr. Duggan. He gave his name as Pablo. ''I hate the police,'' he said.

The anarchy even spread to another area of London as looters attacked a shopping center in Wood Green, several miles away from where the riots were unfolding. Clothing and hangers littered the street as young looters smashed the doors and ransacked nearly every shop.

Every few minutes, as cars burned on Tottenham High Road, young men with hoods pulled over their heads and bandanas over their mouths launched fireworks at the officers. One group smashed the brick garden wall of a residence on Rawlinson Terrace and scooped up the bricks.

As of 3:45 a.m. local time, there had been no official reports of injuries or arrests.

As bystanders watched from a distance, a group of young men smashed through the glass door of a William Hill betting shop and kicked in the door of at least one private home, while helicopters circled overhead.

By 3 a.m., it appeared that parts of the riot zone had spiraled out of police control. An enormous fire raged in a blocklong building, with no sign of police or fire department intervention, even while residents raced to drive their cars away as the building's windows exploded and glass rained down on them. Fires raged in alleys, unabated.

A group of young men laden with looted groceries sprinted down a side street, screaming, ''Lets load up!'' as more whipped past on bicycles and mopeds. The young men seemed to be both jubilant and deadly serious; the street had an unsettling partylike atmosphere at times, punctuated by intense violence.

The young men did not seem concerned about how the night might end. ''I don't care,'' Pablo said. ''I hate the police.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.